Finnair's curious new route to Japan

I recently flew back into Japan from Ireland, with Finnair. There is no direct flight, so I had a stop over in Helsinki. Since 2019 Finnair are my preferred airline when flying into Japan from Europe. That first year, 2019, because Finnair could still fly over Russia. The best flight time I did from Japan on that route was about 11 hours and the best flight to Japan was only 9.5 hours. 

However, since 2022 Finnair can no longer fly over Russian airspace. Due to that, flight times have extended. Since 2022 the best time I did flying into Japan was 11.5 hours. For three years, from 2022 to 2024, the average flight time on the route was 13 hours from Japan and 12 hours to Japan. As you have probably calculated by now, the flight time to Japan is always shorter than the flight time from Japan. That was flying over the North Pole.  And on each flight over the North Pole, all passengers got a certificate to say they had flown over the North Pole.

On the most recent flight, straight away I knew something was different when the pilot announced the flight time would be 12.5 hours. I was instantly disappointed as I had geared myself up for the usual 11.5 hours, which is hard enough in itself. Hearing it would be an hour longer bewildered me. And it was only when I opened the flight route on the airplane entertainment system, that I understood why.

This time the route was over the middle east not the north pole. The flight first went south over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and then went slightly west over Poland. The route planner than dropped out for the rest of the flight, but we flew over the middle east then China I believe. 

While the polar route is shorter, I believe the gradual time zone shift and better daylight management on the Middle East route is to thank for my lack of jet lag this time. I can cope with a slightly longer flight time if this curious new flight path is to thank for the lack of jet lag!